The last decade or so of romance films have been really hit or miss for me, especially in the young adult genre.
(The following is a lost ad from The Hallmark Channel)
LOST:
Recently, one of our vaults was raided and we lost access to a film. That film is Love Again. It came out earlier this year, but should be easy to spot, for how it is masquerading itself as a rom com.
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American Graffiti (1973)
The tagline for George Lucas’ pre-Star Wars breakthrough American Graffiti reads
“Where were you in 62?”
Simply put, I was a quarter of a century away from being born. Even so, if the film were set in 1962, 1922, or 2006 (the year I graduated), the film would still showcase human elements that apply to young adults everywhere.
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Gran Turismo (2023)
As a kid, my interest in the Gran Turismo games reflected that of my interest in motor racing in general, which is to say there was very little interest at all (unless said races featured a mascot plumber and his friends shooting turtle shells).
It seems as though director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) and the others behind the film Gran Turismo knew that there would be a good junk of us that know virtually little about the sport of motor racing, so they put together the old formula of a “feel good sports film” together. Anyone who has seen the trailer will be laps ahead of the cliches.
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Blue Beetle (2023)
Sometimes, it is hard for us to remember what it was like seeing a superhero movie where we knew very little about them going into it.
When this happens, it makes the film more intriguing, such as the original Iron Man (2008) and first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), films that were massive successes regardless if you knew the source material or not. It also helped that (at the time of release) the characters were not entirely in the first class for their creator’s. In the case of Blue Beetle, the DC character is barely in the third class of characters, but that is not entirely a bad thing.
My five year old self is dancing in his shell right now.
There is no denying my childhood was impacted by the shelled heroes in green, and I won’t be able to complete this review without reminiscing. They were on at 6:30 in the morning every day before my dad would drive me to day care. Somewhere out in the ether is a photo of me as Leonardo for Halloween (I vaguely remember being upset the swords were not real). I remember countless time playing the arcade game (still one of the greatest arcade games ever made), and watching the live action films (even the third one, which was bad even when I was a kid.)
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Theater Camp (2023)
It is true you can’t judge a film just by its title, but when a movie has two things I have always held special places in my heart for (in this case, theater and summer camp), well, my heart was pitter pattering with more anticipation than I have had in some time.
By the end of Theater Camp, my heart was satisfied with an extra helping of warmth.
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Barbie (2023)
“BARBIE! BARBIE!”
“When I say ‘Bar’, you say ‘Bie’! Bar-Bie’”
-actual young teen boys at my screening.
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Oppenheimer (2023)
With the possible exception of Tom Cruise, no entity in Hollywood today cares more about the theatrical experience more than Christopher Nolan.
His name is the first to come to mind when thinking of directors of his generation, and few have been as successful. His is one of the very few names in Hollywood that can draw an audience just by his name alone. He is one who goes big with every ingredient that makes a movie, letting everyone from the actors to the replacement sound guy to shine. In Oppenheimer, he has gotten the closest he has gotten to outdoing himself in some time, as it is easily the best he has done in years.
Up until a few months ago, I had only seen the first two Mission Impossible films. Believe me, I know. It is somewhat sad that it took me this long to get caught up.
Perhaps I was just not yet willing to accept the mission ahead of me.
Nothing else to say 